Unschool RULEShttps://unschoolrules.com
Uncurriculum. Unformal. Unbelievably joyful.Wed, 21 Feb 2018 04:24:01 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.460341278Building an American history timeline, no textbooks required!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnschoolRules/~3/tTqCiByuzhg/
https://unschoolrules.com/2018/01/american-history-timeline-without-textbooks/#respondThu, 01 Feb 2018 03:11:31 +0000https://unschoolrules.com/?p=4069Sunflower Education's Giant American History Timeline is awesome for relaxed homeschoolers. It's a creative and fun-to-research walk through history that doesn't require any textbooks and is great for all ages!

]]>I always hated history. Pages and pages of textbooks filled with things done by old white guys? Not really my jam.

Point of irony: Sarah LOVES history. Her dad, Chris, and my fiance, Dan, are pretty nuts about it too (Dan was a history major in undergrad, even).

It wasn’t until we started our homeschooling journey with Sarah that I realized something.

History isn’t all about textbooks and old white dudes. History is about people.

So despite my previous “I hate history” mantra, I was actually really excited when we got the chance to review Sunflower Education’s Giant American History Timeline, which focuses on – you guessed it – people, and more specifically, people of all cultures.

How Sunflower Education’s Giant American History Timeline works

The Giant American History Timeline is a two-volume set, with Book 1 spanning the Pre-Colonization period (going all the way back to prehistory!) through the Reconstruction, and Book 2 picking up with the 1870s and continuing through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In exchange for the honest review of our experience which appears in this post, our family received free print and PDF copies of The Giant American History Timeline. We were compensated for our time completing the review, but the awesome history conversations were all ours!

This post also has some affiliate links to products we legitimately use and recommend.

Each book goes through a variety of time periods and provides six kinds of activity sheets that are both research-focused AND a great spark for creativity. The activity sheets are designed to then be laid out in a huge timeline; layout ideas and arrows are even included!

One of the coolest things about either version, but especially the digital, is that these are actually designed to be able to be used both by homeschoolers or by school classrooms. So if you have multiple kids in your family, not only can you print out as many copies of a particular sheet as you need, but because the activities are creative, each of your learners can put their own spin on that period of history.

So what do I mean by “creative and research-focused” activities? These activity sheets are amazing. Instead of being like traditional worksheets – you know, “Match the date to the person” – they’re full of open-ended questions, opportunities for art projects (with the ability to use pictures printed from the Internet if you’re NOT art-minded) and map studies that allow for students to mark what they find interesting.

Oh, and I can’t forget my personal favorite, biography activity sheets, which focus on the people key to a time period. (You might remember how much we love learning from biographies.) And not just ANY people. These include women and people who aren’t white! Remember how I said I hated old-white-guy history? This was clutch for me. There’s even a whole section on social justice issues in Volume 1!

Another thing I loved: These sheets could easily be used by students from elementary through high school. Because the questions and activities are so open-ended, you could do a more simplistic version with a second- or third-grader, and a really in-depth version with a high-schooler.

Exploring the New Deal, timeline-style

So… how DID our high-schooler use The Giant American History Timeline? Well, we’re into print books around here, so she and I sat down and started flipping through that version of both volumes, and as we came to events or periods or people Sarah didn’t know much about, she started asking me questions.

We talked about Federalism, the Oregon Trail, the national railroad system, the Indian Removal Act and even Gettysburg National Military Park, which is only about a half-hour from our house. I thought we’d probably do that until we got to World War II (one of Sarah’s big interests), so I was pretty surprised when she stopped on The New Deal and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

That’s where things got really interesting.

Over the next hour and a half, we had a conversation on everything from economic stimulus to the voting rights of people with felony convictions as well as those with various disabilities. We also talked about Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Social Security, good farming practices, the causes of World Wars I and II… and a bunch more.

It got even cooler when my mom was able to join in and tell us some stories about growing up at the end of the Great Depression, and about the New Deal-related work her father had, where he taught chair-caning to people at a local blind center.

It was awesome! And it all came from a simple activity sheet.

Completing an American history timeline without textbooks

One of the best things about Sunflower Education’s Giant American History Timeline is that it can be used with any curriculum. You could use it with a traditional history textbook, or one of the (in)famous history spines loved by homeschoolers around the world.

Or… you could be a super-relaxed homeschooling family like us, not exactly all about the textbooks.

No textbook? No problem. Remember how open-ended I said the questions are? They’re things that can be found in a huge number of places – tons of different websites, traditional textbooks, or our personal favorite, history reference books!

A couple of years ago for Christmas, Sarah asked for – and received – DK Smithsonian’s History, a guide to, you guessed it… history. ALL of history. This book is a beast.

Like with The Giant American History Timeline, you can use it to focus on a particular period, to jump around to times of interest, or to work your way straight through from prehistory to the present. Oh, and it’s heavy enough to use as a weapon in a home invasion – added bonus!

You name the subject, and we probably have what we call a “browsing book” that helps us dig into it.

Because the Smithsonian History guide covers all of world history, it didn’t have tons of information on the New Deal – but it had exactly enough about the background of the Depression and the idea behind the New Deal programs to give us some ideas about more things to Google to find out more.

It made a perfect companion to The Great American History Timeline!

Oh, and if you’re interested in a more formal application of this idea, you should definitely check out a post on Our Journey Westward – How to Use Informational Books as History Curriculum. Cindy, who runs that site, does a great job explaining how this can work as the basis for a more traditional history curriculum too.

Win your own copy of The Giant American History Timeline

The awesome folks at Sunflower Education are giving away copies of The Giant American History Timeline Book 1. Ten lucky U.S. residents 18 or older will get to dig in to the Pre-Colonization to Reconstruction period – so make sure you enter!

]]>https://unschoolrules.com/2018/01/american-history-timeline-without-textbooks/feed/04069https://unschoolrules.com/2018/01/american-history-timeline-without-textbooks/A fun family writing project: What if your stuff came to life?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnschoolRules/~3/wIhJpnkiKj0/
https://unschoolrules.com/2018/01/family-writing-project-sentient-beings/#commentsWed, 10 Jan 2018 15:04:15 +0000https://unschoolrules.com/?p=3943Looking for a fun family writing project? Try imagining what would happen if your household items came to life and became sentient beings!

]]>Welcome to our Sentient Beings Project, a family writing project based on one question: “What if your stuff came to life?”

How our family writing project began

It all started with a song – specifically “I Am Not Your Broom” by They Might Be Giants. Sarah and I have loved that song for years, and it came on while we were driving around town on some errands. We started talking about what would happen if our own “stuff” would somehow come to life. This led us into the idea of sentience, and what it means to be alive.

This led into all sorts of questions about the implications of that, including sentient rights, and Sarah decided if we had a sentient broom, his name would be Issac. She started talking to me about what brooms might do in their free time, what jobs they might like (if “brooming” wasn’t for them), whether they’d wear clothes, what rights they’d have, their life span, and a bunch more.

When we got home, she grabbed a notebook and started a list, titled…

Sentient beings story ideas

Here’s what her list included:

Issac the sentient broom that can talk

What other inanimate objects would become sentient

Would they get human diseases or their own version

Would they have a job or favorite hobbies

What are some of the things these sentient beings like to do

What different personalities would they have

How would they express their feelings

Would things that are plugged in die if they weren’t plugged in

How would they make money

Would they eat or drink

Would they wear clothing

Would they identify with a religion, culture or race

Would they speak other languages

Would they come from all around the world

Would they have families

Origins: How did they become sentient

Do they have eyes or not

How long do they live for

What names would they choose and how would they choose it or come to have their name

Would they be loved and treated nicely by people

Do they have noses

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

I should make it clear: SHE came up with all of these. I was listening and talking with her about some of the ideas, but all this brainstorming was totally Sarah.

But then, she got stuck. She had all these ideas, and she just didn’t know where to start. She decided that she wanted to draw Issac, so she watched a “How to Draw a Broom” tutorial and brought him to life. But she didn’t know what to write, so I suggested that instead of trying to tackle ALL the questions about Issac, maybe she could write an anecdote (and this gave me a chance to explain what an anecdote is) to go with his picture.

Then she decided that was how she wanted to tell their stories – a picture, then something about whatever sentient being was pictured, then another picture, and something about that being, and so on. She did the first two – drawing, coloring and writing – and then she invited me to draw my own sentient being. After that, my mom was next to participate, then Dan, and then Chris. All in all, we worked on these for the better part of a month!

(Oh, and did you know what makes a drawing sentient? It’s googly eyes.)

I hope you’ll enjoy seeing our drawings and reading our stories. And I hope you’ll consider some of our questions above as prompts for your own family writing project about sentient beings!

Issac

Story and art by Sarah Otto

Issac was so happy that he got a name. It made him feel special and loved, and like part of the family – that these people who he calls his family care about him and want Issac to feel like he is one of them.

Zach

Story and art by Sarah Otto

Zach was so happy when he chose that perfect guitar that he could rock out on as loud as he wanted. Zach loved metal and rock music but his favorite was AC-DC, KISS, Rob Zombie and so many others. Zach took guitar lessons and taught himself to play a couple songs. Zach’s favorite color is red but he likes black a lot as well.

Hannah

Story and art by Joan S. Concilio (that’s me)

Hannah loved helping her friends, whether they were other sentient beings or people. She was most proud of the day she was able to use her toast slots – which she kept very clean – to hold Christmas cards for her family. When she popped them up, everyone was so surprised and happy, and she felt so loved.

Victor

Story and art by Joan H. Concilio (that’s my mom)

I’m Victor Vacuum and I help keep the house clean. I even gave one of the witches a ride in the movie Hocus Pocus. I was a star! The witches thought they were the stars, but really I was.

Chazz

Story and art by Dan Herman

(Editor’s, aka Joan’s, note: It took Dan like two weeks after he drew his chainsaw to write his story, but when he did, he REALLY WROTE.)

Charles was not a happy chainsaw. All the other saws in the Sears picked on him, saying he was too small, his engine too weak, his teeth too dull. He figured they must have a point. After all, generation after generation of the other saws came and went, selling out and replaced by new models, while he just sat on the shelf, collecting dust. One day, a young boy in a dirty apron slowly made his way around the entire tools area, appraising everything he saw, picking up everything sharp before putting it back. The boy was just about to leave when he spotted Charles sitting on the lowest shelf. He walked over, picked Charles up, hefting him from hand to hand, then walked off to the register without a word.

Charles was nervous. He was excited of course, but also worried – who was this kid, and what did he want to do? He was especially confused when he was taken inside a small bakery and presented to a round man who looked like a larger version of the boy – only his facial expression was one of dismay. “Oh, Stefan,” sighed the large man, turning back to his oven. “Such a tiny thing will never get rid of that,” he said, gesturing to his right. Charles suddenly noticed an enormous wooden ceiling support beam… or at least, that’s what he thought it used to be. What it was now looked like a tree had fallen, crushing a large unidentifiable piece of machinery.

“I’m… I’m sorry, father,” said Stefan, his head bowed. “It was all we could afford.” His father turned at this, offering a sad smile. “I know, my boy. I was not blaming you. But I’m afraid this means it’s over. We can’t make enough with the slicer out of commission, so we’ll have to sell. Come, help your old father with the mixer one last time.” Choking back tears, Stefan set Charles on the table next to the cooling rack, and followed his father into the prep room.

Charles felt miserable. The other saws had been right – he was too small, too useless. He couldn’t even muster an imaginary scenario in his head where, if he just put his mind to it, just think-I-can’d enough, he could slice through that beam. It was freakin’ enormous. “And I can barely slice through butter,” he grumbled to himself, swiping his nose against the large tub of same that sat next to him on the table. He gazed despondently at the perfect rows of bread loaves arrayed on the cooling table. Now that, he could imagine. He pictured himself poised over the top of a particularly fluffy loaf, biting into the flaky crust, cleaving through the whole thing with ease. “Even easier than mowing through zombies,” he growled. (Every chainsaw fantasizes about being used during a zombie apocalypse, because it meant almost unlimited sawing through relatively soft objects.) “I could do this for days…” he said, trailing off as an idea occurred to him.

Stefan and his father sprinted back into the oven area, Stefan unsure if there was a large cat loose and the baker concerned another of the machines had jammed, eliminating even the meager amount he might resell it for. They both stopped dead just inside the doorway, mouths agape at what lay before them. Charles was halfway through a loaf when they came in, and he instantly shut himself off and rolled off the bread, suddenly mortified at what he’d done without even asking permission. “Who… who did this?” asked Stefan. His father, though, just walked over to the table, his expression unreadable. “I did,” said Charles in a small, gravelly voice. “It was my fault.” Still saying nothing, the baker picked up one of the loaves Charles had ripped into. “What? How?! Why would you do this?” cried the boy, falling silent when his father raised his hand to shush him. “How many did you do?” asked the baker in a quiet voice.

“Only a dozen or so, sir, I’m really sorry. I’ll never do it again, just please…” pleaded Charles, fearful of getting returned until he was bewildered by a sudden gust of laughter from the baer. “Never again? Why, you’ll do more right now!” he exclaimed, throwing the bread in the air. “Twelve loaves in a minute, and buttered? My boy, you’re going to slice as many loaves as your heart desires! Stefan!” He motioned to the boy, who was now grinning ear-to-ear, to come forward. “Get Charles whatever he needs and then get back to mixing! We’ve baking to do!” Humming to himself, he strode back to the prep room, leaving Stefan and Charles alone. “I don’t know, Charles,” the boy said, his face turning serious. “I don’t know if this will work.” Charles’ heart sank. To come so close to finding his place, only to have it snatched away…

The boy broke into a grin, grabbed a Sharpie from the table, knelt down beside Charles and began to write on him. “With your engine going constantly, I think you’re more of a ‘Chazz,’ what do you think?” In response, Chazz just revved up his motor and got to work.

Contessa

Contessa is a very old sentient door. More than 200 years old. She was, for many years, attached to a house that was built when she was. But that house is gone now. For awhile, Contessa was discarded and sat in a junkyard, where nothing around her was sentient, but there was a nice raccoon who kept her spirits up. Then, one day, a lady discovered Contessa and moved her to a store, where she now sits next to many other old things. Visitors compliment Contessa every day, and the air smells like cinnamon.

Create your own family writing project

What in your house would you like to see come to life? What stories does that object have? Start with the questions we listed above, or ask even deeper questions!

]]>https://unschoolrules.com/2018/01/family-writing-project-sentient-beings/feed/23943https://unschoolrules.com/2018/01/family-writing-project-sentient-beings/Unschooling: Our annual wrapup and December 2017 adventureshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnschoolRules/~3/vOHeow-w9J0/
https://unschoolrules.com/2017/12/unschooling-december-2017/#commentsMon, 01 Jan 2018 04:44:00 +0000https://unschoolrules.com/?p=3883Unschooling in December 2017 was mostly centered around a broken hip, but also included great conversations about economics and genetics and the start of a cross-country trip.

]]>Welcome to the end of 2017! This year was… different. Also it seemed to start approximately a decade ago, and included some really heartbreaking times – but some great ones too. And as far as unschooling goes, it was also a mixed bag. We had a bunch of amazing conversations and dug deep into a few topics, but we also had less time together as a family than would have been ideal.

So this is my chance to both wrap up our December as well as our year for you. I’m hoping to find a different format for “wrapups” in 2018, as this style is both incredibly time-consuming (for me) and incredibly long to read through (for you). If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments, as I admit I’m kind of drawing a blank.

All the Conciliottomans, Christmas Eve 2017.

(And as always, if you want a more frequent peek at what we do, you can always find me on Instagram and Facebook. I’m specifically trying to share more on Facebook, both from our lives and from other homeschooling blogs I’m reading, so make sure you’re following along there!)

Sarah knew what she wanted to give her Mommom for Christmas: A set of photos from her trip to Walker-Stalker New Jersey.

Mom’s broken hip

So, the big news for December was that, on Dec. 9, my mom (also Joan), fell at home and broke her hip. Thankfully Sarah and Chris were home with her; Sarah called me, and then Chris called the ambulance and my sister Linda, who lives locally, since Dan and I were an hour away at work.

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

She went immediately to the hospital, had surgery two days later, spent some time in critical care afterward due to some heart complications, and then four days after that, headed to rehab for two weeks, where she basically had to regain the ability to walk, dress and bathe.

How long she’d be in rehab was a huge question – but we found out just a few days before Christmas that she could come home on Christmas Eve, and it was the best possible gift.

(Side note: Her fall happened the day before Sarah, Chris, Dan and I were supposed to leave for Walker-Stalker Con New Jersey, and thankfully Sarah and Chris were still able to go and have a blast!)

Anyway, Mom still has a long road ahead of her, but she has worked AMAZINGLY hard and is making great progress. She and I are “homebound” together for most of January, thanks to the very generous folks at my job who are letting me work from home for all but a few days. We’re learning about all sorts of cool devices, like transfer benches and sock aids and walker slides, that are helping make it doable for her to be at home.

To top it off, the whole experience was a bit rough on Sarah, who is terrified of all things doctor/hospital. But we got to talk about a lot of stuff, and she amazed us all by being willing to go visit Mom regularly. She also helped Dan and I by taking over making dinners during the time when we were working in the office and Mom was at rehab, which was a huge help.

A scene from our Christmas dinner with Chris’ sister, Adriane, her son, Jacob, and her boyfriend, Roy. They were silly.

Christmas

Given all that was going on, Christmas had to be more flexible and low-key than usual. When we found out Mom was coming home, Chris pointed out that we’d need to come up with a holiday meal – and then offered to make it for us. We had an amazing turkey, macaroni and cheese and salmon. Side note: Chris is vegetarian but cooks THE BEST turkeys. It’s kind of mind-blowing.

One of Mom’s favorite things to do is attend Christmas Eve service at her church, and I hated for her to miss it – so I worked with a friend who attends the same church to Facetime it to her! She even used a little battery-powered candle to do the “candlelight” part, which was Dan’s great idea. And a couple of days later, some carolers from her church came by and serenaded us.

We tried to keep a lot of our traditions intact – such as cookie-baking. Sarah made Gingerdead cookies and homemade fortune cookies with me, and she and Chris baked 8 dozen cookies for his cookie swap at work and then made a giant gingerdude filled with four kinds of chips – chocolate, mini chocolate, salted caramel and white chocolate.

My sister Carol came from New Jersey for a few days after Christmas to hang out and help Mom, so while she was here, we had our December Universal Yums snack party, which featured holiday snacks from around the world.

Oh, and Sarah and Chris made a great holiday photo.

Chris and Sarah made this great holiday card, Die Hard and pun-style.

Wrapping up 2017

Our family tradition to wrap up the year is to get out all the slips from our Good Things jar and read them. Since Dan and Sarah were leaving Dec. 29 to drive to Arizona to visit his parents for the holiday, we read them Dec. 28, and since my sister Carol was still here, she joined us! That’s easily one of my favorite family traditions.

(A note: Apparently I write a LOT of good things, and many of them are about food, especially our Universal Yums boxes. Also, every time I went kayaking with my friend Kara, I apparently put it in the jar, so she was the Good Things Featured Star this year.)

To wrap up the year on Unschool Rules, I thought I’d share some of the most-read posts of the year:

I’m not yet sure what 2018 will bring on Unschool Rules. In addition to looking for a new wrapup format, Sarah will finish her mandatory reporting and “graduate” under PA law in a couple of months. Our lives are not likely to change much, and I’d love to keep sharing how we live and learn together, but I worry our day-to-day experiences may be less and less relevant even to unschooling families.

So if there’s something you’d like me to write about… please comment and let me know. I’d love to spend more time doing things like addressing specific topics or questions around unschooling, so if you have one, holler at me!

While on her road trip with Dan to Arizona, Sarah got a new Daryl Dixon beanie.

Road trip kickoff

I mentioned that Dan and Sarah are heading to Arizona. As I finish this post on New Year’s Day, they’re on the last leg. So far, their days were:

In one cool story from their travels, while in Lexington, Kentucky, they found a bag of clothes and a blanket, probably left out for someone homeless. But no one was around, and the weather was bad, and they didn’t want it all to get wet. So they put it in the car, and then, when they made it to St. Louis, Missouri, they found a man asking for help on a median near a Starbucks and were able to give it all to him. So, if you’re reading this and you left such a gift in Lexington, know that it still helped, many miles away!

This is my new owl, Timber. His hat matched the background of the penguin on my shirt!

Books

Plato’s Euthyphro – We went on a four-bookstore adventure one day and this was the book Sarah went around looking for. We’d read part of it during a Coursera philosophy class a couple years ago and it really stuck with her, I guess.

Uncle Wiggily’s Woodland Games by Howard Garis – So, I was a HUGE Uncle Wiggily fan as a kid, and as an adult I’ve started collecting the hard-to-find books of those stories. Chris got me some for Christmas, so I read this one aloud to the whole family.

The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor – Sarah has owned this book for a while but never got around to reading it; so she and Dan listened to the audiobook version on the first couple of days of their drive.

This month in rabbit trails

I mentioned in September’s post on our unschooling planner system that our “rabbit trails” are the most fun we have in unschooling.

This month’s included a bunch of neat stuff, most notably a conversation that spanned a few days that started with how the “value” of cell phones worked and expanded to include how mortgages and taxes and pensions work, casino regulations to avoid money-laundering, marginal utility, alimony, and somehow veered into genetics, sports performance, generational identity, racial identity and human physical and mental capacity. I wish I had recorded it, because it was amazing.

Dan and Sarah also got to talk about property taxes and the morality of Freddy Krueger on their drive.

All of these are just things that come up through our day-to-day life but lead us down a path of talking and looking stuff up and asking more questions.

In physical-gaming time, we played Monty Python Fluxx and Rummy. And Mom, my friends Amanda and Amanda and I played Rummikub to ring in the new year.

Sarah and Chris used up some of our many chocolate bits with this ridiculous cookie (the size of a full cookie sheet, just about).

Updates from around the family

Since our “curriculum plan” for this year featured not just Sarah but the other house adults, I figure I should start giving monthly updates on our progress too. So here’s a look at what’s new with the rest of us (though I already updated you on Mom’s month, so this is just the others of us.)

Me, Joan: Well, my big news is I finished my semester of grad school with As in both classes and registered for two more that start next week. I also somehow read a whopping 17 books, which was pretty amazing even considering a few were graphic novels. The best was by far Tales of Falling and Flying by Ben Loory (whose other book of short stories, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, you should also check out). I also got wrapped up in Mental: Lithium, Love and Losing My Mind by Jaime Lowe, an amazing and very personally relevant memoir of life with bipolar disorder. (Personally relevant because I started new medications this month for my bipolar after having to go without meds for several months, and BOY are they helping.)

ISN’T THIS CAT CUTE?

Dan: Dan checks in with this update: “I have been devouring Rainbow Rowell books, only stopping myself from reading all of them because I don’t want to end up with having none left to look forward to. This month was Attachments and Fangirl. I finished Blood, Sweat and Pixels, an OK book by Jason Schreier about videogame development, but it was already done better in Masters of Doom by David Kushner. Similarly, The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak is a poor-man’s Ready Player One — in both cases fine books to read, but only after you’ve read the better one. Sarah and I listened to The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor, which was a decent story but heavily weighed by down by a writer who got paid extra for every adjective and metaphor crammed in, and an editor who forgot that a book is a coherent miniseries, not a 10-episode season with a dozen different story arcs.

Sarah got this great Walking Dead setup from Mom and loved it!

Chris: Chris says, “I recently finished Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Findakly, a wonderful graphic-novel memoir of growing up in Iraq in the middle of the 20th century, and Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books by Paul Collins, a non-fiction book about Hay-on-Wye that ended up not being my cup of tea, despite its subject matter.

Having Mom home for Christmas was amazing.

So what’s new with your family this month? How did your 2017 turn out? Drop me a comment! I love hearing from all my “blog friends!”

But there was another Walking Dead event she’d been looking forward to for the better part of a year: Walker-Stalker Con New Jersey, which took place Dec. 9 and 10, 2017. That’s actually where she was supposed to meet Norman, but he had to cancel his appearance there because he was the best man in a friend’s wedding during the same time.

The whole haul of goodies from Walker-Stalker Con! New blanket, signed Pop figure, new Pop figure from The Shining, photos, VIP lanyard, posters, art prints and more!

She’d saved up almost $700 to buy a VIP pass and contribute toward hotel rooms for her, Dan, Chris and me to go to northern New Jersey for a family vacation. So even without Norman, we were definitely still going, and she was still super-excited.

Well, plans changed again when, the Thursday before the con, my mom fell and broke her hip. We’d planned to be away Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and with her surgery – somewhat risky at her age and with health problems – scheduled for Saturday, I knew I’d be needed at home.

So Dan stayed with me, and Chris and Sarah headed out Friday afternoon for a Daddy-Daughter Road Trip Extravaganza. (Bonus: Sarah got to stay in her very own hotel room, since we’d booked two!)

Sarah’s selfie with Sean Patrick Flanery, who played Connor MacManus in Boondock Saints.

Sarah reports that they listened to Christmas music on the radio during the drive. Once they arrived Friday evening, they went to the convention center for pass pickup. Her VIP pass came on a special lanyard, which she loved (she’s almost as big of a fan of lanyards as she is of The Walking Dead).

Having the VIP experience was neat, she said, because they got early admission, so it was much calmer than it was later when the general admission people came in. Sarah went back Saturday morning during that time to check out where the celebrities were, and Cooper Andrews, who plays Jerry on the show, walked right past her. (Later that weekend, she got a photo with him, and even cooler, once she posted that photo on Instagram after the trip, he commented on it!)

The gold Walker-Stalker VIP pass included two photo opportunities and two autographs. Sarah used her first autograph for Sean Patrick Flanery, who she also got to take a selfie with. (He’s not from The Walking Dead, but he was in Boondock Saints with Norman Reedus.) She had a Pop figure of his Boondock Saints character, Connor MacManus, in the box, and that’s what she got him to sign.

An autograph from Sean Patrick Flanery, who plays Connor MacManus in Boondock Saints.

Next up was a photo with Jeffrey D. Morgan, who plays bad guy Negan on the show. “I had to get there pretty early to get a good spot in line,” was her description. (He’s pretty popular.) When it was her turn for a photo, Jeffrey gave her a huge hug, which was awesome.

On Sunday, she went straight back to the VIP line at Jeffrey’s table to get his autograph on their photo. She was SUPER excited when he saw her in line and said, “Hey, didn’t I meet you yesterday?” She showed him the picture and said he did!

Sarah with Jeffrey D. Morgan, who plays Negan on The Walking Dead.

By this point, Chris (who had general admission for both days of Walker-Stalker) was able to join her, and they did some shopping, then they went for a photo with Cooper Andrews, who I mentioned earlier.

Before they left, they both had their photos taken with some amazing cosplayers portraying Andrew Lincoln’s character Rick Grimes as well as Norman’s Daryl Dixon (and a zombie)!

Besides all the autographs and photos, the VIP pass-holders at Walker-Stalker got prime seats for all the celebrity panels. She saw Jeffrey D. Morgan, Cooper Andrews and Khary Payton, and even show producer and makeup artist Greg Nicotero.

My favorite photo from the weekend had nothing to do with TWD. It was a Stranger Things-inspired Christmas picture that was set up as a free photo op by the conference organizers, and probably the one thing I am SUPER jealous to have missed out on a chance to do!

I’m excited that Sarah still got to go and have a blast. And she brought home our next project – a bunch of art and her new photos, which need to be framed and added to the Walking Dead wall above her bed!

(Side note: In a few weeks, I’m going to share some “house tour” photos of our house, including Sarah’s room, so if you like TWD, stay tuned for a room that’s heavily decorated with it!)

All in all, Sarah says she had a great time – and can’t wait to go to another Walker-Stalker event!

]]>Happy December. If you celebrate Christmas, it is now only days away. What?! Whoa. We’ll be spending Christmas day at home as a family, then the next day, Dan, Sarah and I leave to drive to Arizona to visit his parents and brother. I’m also hoping to catch up with some friends while we’re out there. But before that, we have some cool stuff planned for the next couple of weeks, and I didn’t want to forget to show off our November unschooling fun too!

(And as always, if you want a more frequent peek at what we do, you can always find me on Instagram and Facebook. I’m specifically trying to share more on Facebook, both from our lives and from other homeschooling blogs I’m reading, so make sure you’re following along there!)

This was Sarah presiding over her last meeting as 4-H Alpaca Club president.

Books

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

So here’s a fun fact about November: I think Sarah read from maybe one or two books all month.

This isn’t a huge deal by any means – we did a TON of other cool stuff, and books are just one of many ways we explore new things.

But I wanted to lead with this section, because among the questions I get most often about unschooling is, “OK, we’re trying unschooling, when will my kids stop doing computer stuff or playing video games and start reading books?”

And my answer? “Why do you have the expectation that they should?”

If I started my post with a section that said “Sarah played maybe one or two hours of video games all month” or “Sarah didn’t make any new paintings this month,” would you think that was weird or disgraceful?

Video games are just a medium. Books are just a medium. Paint is just a medium.

Now, if I said to you, “Sarah wasn’t interested in anything this month.” “Sarah didn’t explore anything new this month.” “Sarah didn’t do anything creative this month.” … would those statements worry you?

They might worry me at first, but at this point, my gut reaction would be to peel them apart and ask, “Hmm, is that really true, or is it that she didn’t explore anything new this month in the way I was hoping?” The “anythings” are usually a good indicator that it’s time for us to do that as unschooling parents.

The thing I see happen a lot is that people take a statement like “My child didn’t use X medium this month” and turn it into “My child isn’t learning.” Those things are not in any way related. Sarah learned a ton this month. It happened to be without a lot of books, but it would be OK if it had been from all books. It happened to involve a lot of movies, but it would be OK if it involved no movies.

The medium is not the answer.

Weirded out by that? Stick with me a little bit, through the end of this post. See the kinds of learning that happen to us through a huge variety of other media, and see if it can help you think differently about whether books are the be-all-end-all of “education!” (And, of course, feel free to ask sincere questions about the unschooling process in the comments. I am always glad to help people who are finding their way along this thought path, because it IS very different!)

Oh – and Sarah did read me her favorite story from A Book of Dwarfs by Ruth Manning-Sanders, which was super-nice.

Doesn’t everyone put candles in a birthday pie crust?

The Amazing Sentient Beings Project

So, one day in the car, Sarah and I were listening to the song I am Not Your Broom by They Might Be Giants, which we have loved for years. We started talking about what would happen if our everyday “stuff” somehow came to life – and we started talking about what it means to be a “sentient being.”

This led into all sorts of questions about the implications of that, including sentient rights, and Sarah decided if we had a sentient broom, his name would be Issac. So she came home, watched a “How to Draw a Broom” tutorial, and came up with Isaac, as well as a short anecdote about him, after deciding that’s how she wanted to tell the story of her beings – with drawings and anecdotes. Then came another broom named Zach, and then she asked the rest of the family to draw a sentient being. (Hint: You know what makes a drawing sentient? Googly eyes.)

It turned into such an amazing effort that I will be writing a separate post about it in a few weeks, so keep your eyes out for more of the story of our sentient beings, including a great one about Chazz, the little chainsaw who became the best thing since sliced bread.

To give you an idea, here’s the original Issac story:

Issac was so happy that he got a name. It made him feel special and loved, and like part of the family – that these people who he calls his family care about him and want Issac to feel like he is one of them.

The stories are the best part of the sentient beings project, but you’ll have to wait to read all of those – for now, here’s a look at our drawings!

Another writing project: Postcard stories

Then there was a Daddy-Daughter Day where Chris and Sarah decided to find a postcard from their rather immense collection and use it as a story-starter.

Thus Napoleon’s Second Chance at Love was born, which spawned historical research, a cover-designing project and a dive back into the postcards for potential sequel material.

This is another project that’s so cool I’m going to give it a post of its own in the future, so once again, stay tuned.
[photo]

Chris and Sarah’s book cover for A Second Chance at Love, starring… Napoleon. And one of Chris’ postcards. And Josephine.

Movies and TV

Friends – One of Sarah’s favorite shows and a frequent “rewatch” for her if she doesn’t have a current series in the works.

The World Series – Sarah was rooting for the Astros as we have friends who live outside Houston. She thought given the flooding, etc., it was a good time for them to have a win. Catching Game 7 as November started was pretty cool.

The Walking Dead – Which is, of course, immediately followed by an hour of The Talking Dead.

Ride – In which Norman Reedus (of The Walking Dead) rides his motorcycle in various places. Actually a SUPER interesting way to learn about various places and their culture. This month, he went to Barcelona, South Carolina, New Mexico and Hawaii. We love watching together and talking about the cool stuff he sees. Mostly I’m bummed because these are short “seasons” – six episodes each – so now we have to wait quite a while for new ones.

Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics – Continuing our Sunday- and Monday-night AMC dedication is this new show, which is pretty neat. So far TWD comic author Robert Kirkman has tackled issues like race in comics, how 9/11 affected comics, and more. If you have any comics fans in your family, you should check this out. (Remember how I said the medium is not what makes something educational? Case in point: This show, AND the comics themselves, often spark huge discussions and learning opportunities in our family!)

Hairspray – Dan introduced Sarah and I to this, which we could not believe we’d never seen. An amazing look at integration and social justice AND anxiety. Again with the very cool family conversations and learning.

Sarah, her new stuffed bear Rivers, and our friend Nina’s photography on display in a downtown storefront.

Funny videos on YouTube

Something that happens decently often in our house is, after I finish up work, then freelance work, then grad school, evening has long since passed and I feel like a jerk who hasn’t interacted with my family nearly enough. So then I’ll emerge from my lair in the front of the house and say “Anyone want to do something together?” Usually at, you know, midnight. Or later.

So we can’t exactly start a rousing Monopoly game, you know?

One of our go-to quick sources of amusement is taking turns Chromecasting funny YouTube videos to our TV. This month’s, for your watching pleasure, are below.

My contribution came via Dan, who sent it to me to cheer me up, and is, of course, a funny cat video:

Sarah, meanwhile, went for something with a little more depth. It involves Ellen and Steve Harvey both being on their talk shows live, and Steve having to say whatever Ellen says in his earpiece. It gets WEIRD but they pull it together and make it hilarious at the end!

She also had a funny one of Kevin James doing pratfalls, which was GREAT.

This month in rabbit trails

I mentioned in September’s post on our unschooling planner system that our “rabbit trails” are the most fun we have in unschooling.

This month’s included a bunch of neat stuff, like:

How weight loss works

What times planes fly

How traffic lights work

All of these are just things that come up through our day-to-day life but lead us down a path of talking and looking stuff up and asking more questions. The sentient beings project I mentioned earlier actually started from a rabbit trail!

Games

This month, Sarah played some FIFA 17, but mostly she renewed her interest in World of Warcraft. She’d been talking about asking for an expansion and game time for Christmas, and before people bought it for her, I wanted to make sure she really still liked it, so I got her a month of game time to see how she liked it after not playing for a while.

Turns out she still likes it. So much so, in fact, that my mom decided to get her the Legion expansion for Christmas. But we wanted to hit the Black Friday special through Blizzard, so we ended up getting it that day and it auto-loaded into her account, so she got an early present!

She and Dan decided to play together, so they’ve had a couple marathon sessions to level up his character.

She’s also eyeing up the new Assassins Creed game as a maybe Christmas thing, so she spent a bunch of time telling me about the whole series and how this game fits in.

And in physical-gaming time, we had some fun playing a game Chris actually got us last Christmas but we had yet to try, Dutch Blitz. Since we live in Pennsylvania Dutch country, it was pretty much up our alley. Though we learned that Dan is way too fast so we had to give him a handicap.

Just some of Sarah’s ideas about her sentient beings project.

Special events

November was a fairly big month for us in “special occasions.”

My sister Carol came to visit from New Jersey, and she, Mom, Dan, me, Sarah, Sarah’s new bear Rivers, my local sister Linda and her husband Mike all went out to one of our favorite local restaurants, the White Rose, to eat. The next day, Sarah, Mom and Carol took a trip to a farm market we like about 40 minutes away for lunch and shopping.

For Thanksgiving, Linda, Mike, Chris, Dan, Mom, Sarah and I all went to a restaurant in southern York County, about an hour’s drive, for dinner, then came back to our house for dessert.

Chris’ sister, Adriane, just bought a new house and invited us all over for dinner and to see it.

For my birthday, Sarah made me a huge batch of cookie dough truffles, which I love but which are SUPER rich and will probably last me until my next birthday! (She’s a super-good baker.)

Also for my birthday, my mom made me a pie crust – that’s my birthday tradition – and a dinner of macaroni and cheese and bacon.

Mom, Sarah and I went to a Celtic Thunder concert in Hershey – an annual tradition.

Dan took Sarah and I to Chili’s for dinner because I really wanted chips and salsa.

We decorated for Christmas on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Well, we got all the decorations done and the trees up, BUT, the ornaments aren’t on them yet because we need a day when all five of us are available at the same time. Soon (I hope).

Chris took Sarah for a long jaunt through the antique stores of nearby Gettysburg and New Oxford, Adams County. Sarah said she learned a bunch of cool stuff from a woman at one story who was talking to them about history, and she saw some cool art too!

Sarah’s Thanksgiving dessert from New Freedom Restaurant, attempting to be stolen by Snuffles.

Unschooling places, projects and odds and ends

The Walking Dead fandom: Sarah kept up her work on her Instagram fan account full of amazing photo edits of Norman Reedus (usually with accompanying song lyrics or quotes). She would love your follows if you like TWD! Photo editing is a big pastime of hers, using a huge variety of apps, and she asked me to help her do some more complicated stuff in Photoshop to make . This month, she posted her first video edits, which she’s had a great time learning how to make.

Shopping with Nana: One of Sarah’s grandmas has a tradition of taking her out to pick out some of her own Christmas presents, then wrapping them up and giving them to her later. So they had their annual shopping date, which included a bunch of new clothes and new sneakers, which is awesome because it means now I’m not on the hook for sneakers!

House photo shoot: My best friend Nina is a professional photographer, and among her many skills is taking real-estate photos, like when houses are staged for sale. But I wanted pictures of our new house as it looks with, you know, US in it, so I begged her to come take photos. They look AMAZING and are going to make for a “house tour” post in a couple of months.

Universal Yums: This month’s Universal Yums snack box came from Turkey (cue Thanksgiving puns), and some of it was pretty good, though there was a good amount that had sesame in it, to which I am allergic. But that’s OK, we still had fun trying (almost) everything!

STEM Sisters:Stem Sisters is a program of the North Museum in Lancaster County, focused on showing teens the power of women in science, technology, engineering and math careers. We’ve participated in a few events and they’re always pretty cool. This one was at Harrisburg Area Community College’s Lancaster campus and focused on professional training opportunities that might be different than a four-year college path.

Stuffed friends rescues: So you know we love stuffed animals, right? Well, sometimes, you see a bear not once but twice at Goodwill in York and end up bringing him home. That was Rivers, a lovely and soft old white bear who became Sarah’s new friend early in November. Well, then, on the 16th, after the STEM Sisters event, we went with Dan to the Salvation Army in Lancaster. In case you’re not familiar with the area, that’s like an hour away from York. We found… THE SAME BEAR. So of course we took it as a sign and adopted him too. This one, we named Brooks, and Sarah gave him and Rivers each an armband so we can tell them apart. Oh, and we rescued two penguins, a koala and a nice polar bear while we were at it – Circuit, Spurs, Sydney and Ike, respectively.

Other odds and ends this month: Lots of 4-H, including Sarah’s last meeting as president of the Alpaca Club. For the coming year, her former VP is now president, and she’s VP, which is cool. The new president is a bit younger and may be able to commit a bit more time, and Sarah will still be there to help out as needed! Also we went to the dentist; as always, Sarah = fine, Mom = dental disaster. Fillings are scheduled. Also also, Sarah took a bike ride around our neighborhood and made her Christmas wishlists (one of books and one of other stuff).

Mom and I on my birthday. She gave me a beautiful penguin charm that I put on my work ID badge so I could see it every day, and a fun stuffed duck that sings “You are My Sunshine,” which is our song, and makes me smile like crazy.

Updates from around the family

Since our “curriculum plan” for this year featured not just Sarah but the other house adults, I figure I should start giving monthly updates on our progress too. So here’s a look at what’s new with the rest of us!

Me, Joan: In November, I finished 11 books, but that number is kinda inflated because it included the end of three grad-school textbooks as the semester drew to a close. (As I write this, I’m preparing to take my last final.) Actual normal-people books I can recommend this month include Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too (EXCELLENT graphic novel) by Jomny Sun and From Here to Eternity by Caitlyn Doughty, a look at funeral customs around the world that was super-fascinating. I also liked Everyday Goodness, a mindfulness read by Edward Viljoen. I worked on my immense grad-school research papers, and for fun, I helped as a judge/scorekeeper at a tournament my tae kwon do school hosted.

Dan: Dan checks in with this note: “I had a pretty lazy month, reading-wise. I read a bunch of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which is a fantastic comic about squirrels AND girls (specifically one with the powers of a squirrel). I also finished a good sci-fi book about life on the moon, Artemis, by Andy Weir. Weir also wrote the The Martian, and while Artemis does suffer a bit from the over-sciencification as that novel, it’s still a good read. About the only other notable thing I did was a little bit of research about the British monarchy, summed up in this tweet.

My mom, also Joan, aka Mommom: Mom also read the burial traditions book at my recommendation and said she found it very interesting. She helped Sarah make my birthday truffles, and they also baked cinnamon buns together. She did mention the Fuller House to Full House marathon-watching. Other than that, she says: “Enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner out with part of family. Joan, Sarah and I loved Celtic Thunder concert. It has become a tradition with the three of us that I really love, not just great music, but an evening out with two of my favorite people. A lot more fun than Black Friday shopping. On the down side, we found out that daughter Louise has breast cancer. Doctor does think they found it early so she should be OK after lumpectomy and treatments.” She says (and I agree) that your prayers/good thoughts/etc. are appreciated.

I got to meet a grad school classmate and friend from Nigeria when he came to our college campus to give a talk. It was pretty crazy to be standing together!

So what’s new with your family this month? Drop me a comment! I love hearing from all my “blog friends!”

]]>https://unschoolrules.com/2017/12/unschooling-november-2017/feed/03875https://unschoolrules.com/2017/12/unschooling-november-2017/Focusing on gratitude with a Good Things Jarhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnschoolRules/~3/rixUTxHH4LE/
https://unschoolrules.com/2017/11/good-things-jar-gratitude/#respondSat, 18 Nov 2017 13:52:40 +0000https://unschoolrules.com/?p=3821Gratitude starts with recognizing the good things that happen every day. A Good Things Jar is a great project to help you and your family cultivate gratitude by noticing and celebrating the good in everyday life.

]]>What does it mean to be really grateful? For me, gratitude starts with recognizing the good things that happen every day.

Sometimes these are big things – like a great vacation. But it’s just as often something little, like having someone at the store compliment me on my hair. When those little things happen, if I can take a minute and really savor them, it changes my whole day for the better.

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

I make this sound great, but… let me be honest. It isn’t always easy. For those of us who struggle with mental health issues (anxiety, bipolar, depression, etc.), sometimes there’s just this overwhelming sense of “ugh” instead of “wow” when interacting in the world.

When I’m feeling bad, I can recite all the right things that I know I have to be “thankful” for – like having a safe house, and plentiful food, and warm clothing – but it’s not the same. And the same goes for the rest of our family. We all know how fortunate we are and are truly appreciative of it, but we’re not focused on gratitude sometimes, even when we know we have it pretty good.

So, a few years ago, I did a thing.

The idea of the Good Things Jar

For Christmas 2014, I wanted to make handmade gifts for our family. So I took to Pinterest and Facebook (because of course) and found an idea:

“This January, why not start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. Then, on New Year’s Eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened in a year.”

Well, that sounded pretty cool. I didn’t know how my family would react, but I had about a billion Ball jars in the cabinet, and, most importantly, THIS SOUNDED LIKE SOMETHING I COULD DECORATE WITH WASHI TAPE.

When we exchanged gifts, I presented the rest of the Conciliottomans with not only a nicely decorated “Good Things Jar,” but also a little box that held a bunch of blank colorful paper and a pen, with a note:

“No matter how BIG or small, when a good thing happens, grab a slip, write it down and add it to the jar. Let’s see how full it gets in the year to come!”

We spent all of 2015 filling the jar, emptied it and did it again in 2016 and 2017, and are continuing in 2018 and beyond. In fact, two families we know have even started their own Good Things Jar since seeing ours!

So how can you make your own, and what, exactly, do you do with it?

Good Things Jar: What you’ll need

How to make your Good Things Jar

This is the fun part, right? Take your Ball or Mason jar – wide-mouth is a must, so that you can get your slips into it – and go to town decorating with Washi tape and letter stickers and anything else you like. Label it – including your family name if you like, though if you use a ridiculously long portmanteau like Conciliottoman, maybe don’t.

If you’re doing this as a family project, something cool is having each family member choose a pattern of Washi tape and doing a series of stacked rings, youngest to oldest, to personalize.

Next, grab that bright 12×12 cardstock. Some people use little pieces of regular paper that they fold, but those can get pretty squished by the end of the year. We like cardstock because it’s durable. Make sure you pick a nice vibrant color, but nothing so dark you can’t easily read what is written on it.

Grab your paper cutter, and cut the cardstock into three strips, each 4″ wide. Now, take those strips and cut them to be 2″ tall. You should get 18 2″x4″ strips out of each piece of cardstock. I try to do three different colors of cardstock at once – giving us a mix to write on.

Now you need to find somewhere to put those good-things-waiting-to-happen slips. You can use any small, closing container you have around the house (I think ours is a tin that a wallet once came in?), or, if you’re looking for something to purchase, a recipe box is generally a good size.

Throw a nice pen in your box of blank slips, and boom: Finished Good Things Jar and accessories!

Yes, these are really good things of ours from this year. (I snuck a peek to stage this photo.)

Building a Good Things Jar tradition

So here’s the real trick: Getting your family to share their Good Things.

What worked really well for us was sitting the jar and slips on the middle of our dining-room table. Even though we move it to eat, people see it all the time, and it really makes it easy to grab one and write something down.

I make sure I’m doing plenty myself, so people keep seeing the number of slips grow, and occasionally I’ve been known to say, “Hey! That sounded like a Good Thing!” when I hear someone in the family being happy about something.

One of the things my family likes to do to mess with me is put their slips in the jar with the written-on side facing IN against the other slips. This prevents me from reading them through the jar. Which, I have to admit, is a little bit mean. But it makes “reading day” all the more fun.

This is a page of Good Things from our 2015 family scrapbook. That year, we had 145 good things total; the next year, it went up to 210! Even visiting friends contributed – one of my friends now living in Philadelphia is featured on this one as saying “Yummy Pizza,” referring to a pizza homemade by my mom.

Celebrating your Good Things

Some time between Christmas and New Year’s, when we’re all home together, we find a time to make the Reading of the Good Things into an event. We all take a stack, and take turns going around the room and reading them aloud. (Unintentionally funny, because of course they’re written in first person, and not always by the reader, so you get things like Chris reading “I got new LEGOs” or something.)

It’s an amazing way to look back at the year – and almost always involves a lot of reminiscing while we go, plus realizations like “I write a lot of good things about food.” After we’re done, I get all the slips, because I do something special with them: Since I scrapbook, I incorporate them into our yearly album, which is another reason why we prefer to use cardstock for the slips!

We also have some “Good Things Jar Extenders” we do. Last year, I started telling people around September that I would take the number of Good Things we had, split it five ways, and donate that number of dollars to the charity or cause of each person’s choice.

In 2016, we ended up with donations of $42 apiece (from a total of 210 good things) to our local 4-H, to Pengins for Everyone, to a group helping Syrian refugees in nearby Lancaster County, to a charity that donates books to disadvantaged children in Houston, Texas, and to the Wolf Sanctuary of PA. (Side note: We had 145 Good Things in 2015, so we had a big increase in 2016!)

We also sat a small, clear piggy bank near our slips, and everyone started dumping their pocket change into it. We decided we’d also donate that at the end of the year to a charity we all agreed on, and last year, we gave $69.83 that we gathered to Clearwater Marine Aquarium. This year, my mom suggested (and everyone agreed) that we use it to ship out some of the 200+ stuffed penguins in our basement as part of the aforementioned Pengins for Everyone, our family’s nonprofit, and we came up with about $100.

The 2017 jar was even fuller than 2016. Anyone want to guess how many slips we ended up with? (I haven’t counted yet, but I’m excited to find out – and 2018’s collection is well underway!)

Finally, I am hoping we can start a “Virtual Good Things Jar” in the comments. If you can, leave a comment with one good thing that happened recently. Remember: It can be big or small! Our family would love to celebrate your good things with you.

My good thing: I am especially grateful to CM&M Photography for my Good Things Jar photos!

]]>https://unschoolrules.com/2017/11/good-things-jar-gratitude/feed/03821https://unschoolrules.com/2017/11/good-things-jar-gratitude/Unschooling: Our October 2017 adventureshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnschoolRules/~3/iuf6uX2Crp4/
https://unschoolrules.com/2017/11/unschooling-our-october-2017-adventures/#commentsMon, 06 Nov 2017 13:37:22 +0000https://unschoolrules.com/?p=3819Unschooling in October 2017 included some sad news, but also good times learning about seahorses and Shakespeare, time with our neighbors, and more.

]]>October… went fast. And also seems like it was like, a year ago, now that I’m finishing this post in mid-November. How is it almost Thanksgiving, and thus almost Christmas, and thus almost 2018? I can’t deal. As far as unschooling goes, October had some good times, but also some less-good ones, though it both started and ended on a good note.

(And as always, if you want a more frequent peek at what we do, you can always find me on Instagram and Facebook. I’m specifically trying to share more on Facebook, both from our lives and from other homeschooling blogs I’m reading, so make sure you’re following along there!)

Sarah and Bast the Mummy had a nice dinner out with Chris at the White Rose, a local restaurant they frequent.

Theater disappointments

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

So, theater has been a huge part of Sarah’s life for the past year. Once Antony and Cleopatra wrapped up (and that was NOT a disappointment, but super-fun), she was focusing most heavily on her role as Malcolm in Macbeth of the Dead. But, less than two weeks before the play was set to perform, it was cancelled.

She started looking at other shows in the area, but found that most of the winter ones have performances during the weekend in early December when we’ll be in northern New Jersey for Walker-Stalker Con NJ, so she couldn’t audition for them. The next one that’s possible for her to try out for is Jane Eyre at DreamWrights, with auditions in mid-December. So we’ll see.

Sarah and Coby in 2015, at our old house.

Saying goodbye

The worst thing, by far, to happen in October was that we had to say goodbye to our dog, Coby, an amazing goldendoodle who would have turned 14 later in the month, and who we had since Sarah was 2 or 3 years old.

He was having a lot of trouble walking and some other progressive health problems, some of which had been going on for a few years, and by the end of September we were realizing that his pain was no longer under control with all the medications he was taking and his quality of life was pretty bad. So, on Oct. 4, we took him for one last (very short) walk around the neighborhood, with Dan, Chris, Sarah and I all taking turns leading him for a few feet; we invited friends over to say goodbye; and on Oct. 5, we had the in-home euthanasia veterinarian come and put him to sleep. Mom, Chris, Dan, Sarah and I were all there, sitting around him, when he passed. As far as those things go, it was a great experience; if you’re local to PA, I can highly recommend Peaceful Pet Passage, who did a great job.

Then, less than a week later, my oldest sister, Linda, and her husband, Mike, had to have their dog, Katie, put to sleep. It was a ROUGH week. We ended up having dinner all together the night after Katie passed away, because we were all just too upset to do much of anything.

Sarah wrote this amazing tribute to Coby, which was posted on the Peaceful Pet Passage website.

Books

Sarah has really gotten into reading again lately. We’ve been working on our family learning journals together, and in fact we’re all making progress on our book lists and otherwise pursuing the topics we’re interested in. If you haven’t yet read about that project, definitely check it out here!

The Tempest – We watched the DVD version of Sarah’s summer performance of The Tempest after the last Antony and Cleopatra show, so that my mom, who hadn’t been able to attend, could see it. It was great!

The World Series – Sarah was rooting for the Astros as we have friends who live outside Houston. She thought given the flooding, etc., it was a good time for them to have a win.

We Bare Bears – Of all the shows I watch with Sarah and Dan and Mom and Chris, this is probably the only one where I say “Hey, let’s watch THIS” and actually pick something. I love this show. It’s a must-watch, I think.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Probably Sarah’s favorite series of all time. When she gets super-busy and tired, she puts on one of her two or three favorite episodes and just chills. She was also watching some episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in October.

The Walking Dead – Which is, of course, immediately followed by an hour of The Talking Dead.

Ride – In which Norman Reedus (of The Walking Dead) rides his motorcycle in various places. Actually a SUPER interesting way to learn about various places and their culture. He opened this season in Barcelona, then was in South Carolina in the next episode.

Kara and I were very brave, kayaking on the huge Susquehanna River instead of the lakes that we’re used to. (Now I’m singing TLC’s “Waterfalls” in my head…) It was a beautiful day and even included a picnic!

This month in rabbit trails

I mentioned in September’s post on our unschooling planner system that our “rabbit trails” are the most fun we have in unschooling.

One of the biggest ones this month was about how cancer works, after hearing that one of my sisters has early-stage breast cancer. She’s scheduled for surgery in a few days, but Sarah wanted to know how cancer cells work and how it affects your body (and why). So we spent a whole dinner one night trying to answer as many questions as we could.

Then we watched a video showing how a seahorse gives birth. (Surprise: It’s the male, not the female, that does this!) Then we started digging into various pages full of interesting seahorse facts, all while trying to answer questions we had, like whether they needed to live in pairs or not. Somehow this also led to us talking about giraffes, though I can’t remember how we got there.

Unschooling places, projects and odds and ends

Enjoying our neighborhood: Our new neighborhood is MUCH cooler than our old one. We get to take lots of walks, with more variety in places to go, and most importantly, we have really great neighbors who regularly invite us to bonfires and who, on Halloween, had a big neighborhood fire where lots of people gathered to hand out candy. I find those gatherings fun, but Sarah REALLY loves them, often staying after I go home!

Dude-and-daughter days: This month, Chris and Sarah spent their daddy-daughter days working on plans for their model train setup, as well as going to the comic store and to one of their favorite restaurants. And in addition to the aforementioned comedy movie marathon, Dan and Sarah had a cool day out where they went to Masa, our favorite Japanese restaurant, as well as the model train show.

The Walking Dead fandom: Sarah kept up her work on her Instagram fan account full of amazing photo edits of Norman Reedus (usually with accompanying song lyrics). She would love your follows if you like TWD! Photo editing is a big pastime of hers, using a huge variety of apps. She’s also just started working on video editing, which I’ll share more about at the end of this month!

Other odds and ends this month: Talking about the difference between various breeds of dogs. Visiting the SPCA to donate the dog supplies we no longer needed. Listening to White Zombie. Making multiple trips to Spirit Halloween. Reading Harley Quinn comic books. Eating Universal Yums boxes from both Pakistan and Belgium. (Note: Belgium makes REALLY GOOD CHOCOLATE.) Sarah and my mom delivering a meal to one of my mom’s friends who had surgery. Rescuing a stuffed bear from Goodwill, who Sarah named Rivers and got VERY attached to. Seeing a great version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream staged at York College.

A selection of books that Chris gave out to our trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Also pictured: Mr. Angelino, aka Mystery, the cat, who did not get given away.

Updates from around the family

Since our “curriculum plan” for this year featured not just Sarah but the other house adults, I figure I should start giving monthly updates on our progress too. So here’s a look at what’s new with the rest of us!

This month, when I emailed everyone for their updates, I told them if I didn’t get a response, “I’ll make something up and you may find yourself the winner of a jazz dance competition or something.”

Dan said, “I only came in second place in the jazz dance competition. It’s not right to lie.”

To that, my mom replied, “Dan only came in second in the jazz dance contest because I was better, I won!!!”

So there you have it, jazz dancing in the Conciliottoman household.

Me, Joan: I am still holding on to high As in both my graduate classes this semester, and I registered for two more classes for spring.

In September, I finished seven books, including The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and Becoming Ms. Burton by Susan Burton, both related to my interest in prison reform, and a funny fiction read called Fitness Junkie by an author whose previous book I’d loved.

In less exciting news, I spent a lot of time in physical therapy for my knee (but now I’m finished!) and didn’t get to tae kwon do as much as I would like because of it.

But in fun news, I did take part in a wood-breaking event called Break-Fest at my tae kwon do school, and that was a ton of fun! I also crashed a wedding with two friends, went kayaking on a river for the first time, made schnitz and knepp, did some scrapbooking, and worked a lot on Dan’s and my side project, which I will leave it to him to tell you about.

Dan: Dan says, “My month was mostly spent on our new initiative, TechnicalPenguins.com. But I did manage to sneak a little science with Soonish, by the authors of one of my favorite webcomics, about some possible scientific advances to keep an eye out for. I also finished the audiobook version of Slobberknocker, by Jim Ross, an old wrasslin’ vet who’s very good at storytelling. A bit of an oddity was A Lot Like Christmas, a collection of short stories whose central theme was Christmas (but not in the traditional Ebenezer Scrooge style [although wait one was definitely a reboot of A Christmas Carol so who knows]).”

I just want to add that Technical Penguins was a HUGE undertaking for both of us. We have long done freelance web development and support work (first separately, more recently together) but had never made a website to promote our work, in an obvious case of the shoemaker’s children going barefoot. So we finally decided to make it a priority and put a HUGE amount of effort into it. So if you need website help… let us know!

Also of note: Chris, dressed as a “book wizard,” handed out BOOKS to our trick-or-treaters this Halloween. He had an amazing selection, and many kids got to go home with more than one new book.

My mom, also Joan, aka Mommom: Mom says, “All I accomplished was getting through Fall without any major asthma problems. I am involved in two Bible studies (Ephesians and Philippians) and Stephen Ministry is going well. Also rereading Psalms, slowly.” She says that it’s nothing exciting, but I’m super-thrilled at all she does every week. She and I also went with some people from her church to a program on the opioid epidemic in the area and what we can do about it, and that was incredibly eye-opening and interesting.

So what’s new with your family this month? Drop me a comment! I love hearing from all my “blog friends!”

]]>https://unschoolrules.com/2017/11/unschooling-our-october-2017-adventures/feed/43819https://unschoolrules.com/2017/11/unschooling-our-october-2017-adventures/We bought a cemetery! (Or, welcome to the world of model trains)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/UnschoolRules/~3/URx-rSuwutQ/
https://unschoolrules.com/2017/10/homeschooling-model-trains/#respondTue, 31 Oct 2017 13:57:34 +0000https://unschoolrules.com/?p=3808What better way to start setting up model trains than to... buy a cemetery? Trust us, it's a great place to start.

]]>A little more than a month ago, I got a text message from Sarah, who was out with her dad, Chris.

“We bought a cemetery,” it said.

“Um?” I said.

Well, it turns out that in good news, we are not the owners of an additional thing that needs its lawn mowed. It turned out that Sarah and Chris had found something cool at the nearby Dover Antique Mall while looking for a birthday gift for Chris’ nephew, Jacob.

Their find? An incredibly detailed miniature cemetery, probably designed to be used with model trains.

The attention to detail in the tiny gravestones in our cemetery is amazing. It’s hard to read at this size, but each one has a name, like “Matthews,” written on it.

Conveniently, we actually all really like cemeteries and also have been talking for multiple years about setting up our own model train layout, but haven’t ever done anything about, you know, actually doing it.

So when Chris saw the cemetery, he figured, “Hey, why not?” Sarah was thrilled; she said you can tell this cemetery was handmade by someone who put a lot of care into it, and she said now we can take care of it and give it a good home.

Naming the cemetery

Our first project came courtesy of Sarah, who decided we needed a name for our cemetery. She ran an email poll for the five members of our household, with suggestions that included:

Old Bones Cemetery

Creaky View Crypt Emporium

Shady Trees Resting Place

Peacegate Graveyard, presented by Microsoft Windows 95 ™

Skulls and Stuff Cemetery and Funyard

Ravenloft Graveyard

Whispering Maples Burial Ground

Night Time Necropolis

Bob’s Burial Plots

Forelorn Boneyard

Screaming Serenity

Elastic Interments

Zombies-R-Us

Deep Sleep Pet Cemetery

Otto’s Outer Limits Cemetery

Sarah’s Serenity Pet Cemetery

Ghostly Tales Cemetery

Old Bones Inn

Maluhia, which means “peace” in Hawaiian

Rest in Pieces

Dead Parade

Dig Em Up Cemetery

Graveyard Jumble

Dead Man Walking Cemetery

Sarah narrowed it down to four finalists:

Rest In Pieces

Ghostly Tales Cemetery

Zombies-R-Us

Maluhia

And, by a unanimous vote, the winner was Maluhia (which Sarah came up with)! Now we’re trying to figure out how to make a sign for it, with VERY TINY LETTERS.

Our new family cemetery, named Maluhia (“peace” in Hawaiian), features some people hard at work.

Researching model trains

Trying to move the project along, last week, Chris and Sarah spent several hours researching various layout options for model trains. They’d already purchased some other odds and ends… but ran into a bit of a scale problem.

This is what happens when you don’t know what train scale your sheep or your cemetery are. We prefer to think of this sheep as a product of our nearby nuclear power plants.

(Note Sheepzilla.)

After a ton of research, we turned up these fun facts:

The smallest train size is T, which is super-tiny, with trains smaller than a Matchbox car.

Many model train enthusiasts take their projects VERY SERIOUSLY. As in, if you ask on a model train forum about how to include zombies in your scene, some will get pretty unhappy.

The most famous model railroad in history was called Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced “Gory and Defeated”). It ended up being destroyed in a garage fire, and Chris actually has a whole book about it. You can also read more about it here and here, or watch the video below!

What comes next

After a lot of research and discussion, it sounds like we will have a generally HO-scale setup. The train will definitely be that size, and the rest of our things will be… close. My parents and I actually had an HO train platform when I was growing up, and I still have some houses and a railroad station with our Christmas decorations!

Meanwhile, we’ve found a space in our finished basement rec room that will likely be home to our train platform, and Chris and Sarah have chosen a layout – one train in a loop, with scenery inside its and outside its loop, then another train in a loop outside that, with scenery on the outside of it as well. (As some of us like the train part better and some of us are more into the scenery, this should offer a lot for everyone to enjoy!)

Next up: Finding a train to join the layout with our cemetery.

Sarah and Chris have decided they’re going to use what is called True-Track, which is essentially track that sits on a gravel bed so that you don’t have to lay anything beneath it on your foundation. They’ve been eyeing up trains, as well; Sarah’s preference is the slightly more modern-looking diesel locomotives, like this one and this one, not coal-powered trains. She also wants them to make noise and light up, so we have to figure that out, too.

So what’s next? Chris and Sarah need to measure their space and figure out what they’re going to start building on. And then… we start with a cemetery called Maluhia and build from there!

I’m sure there will be many posts to come in the future, but for today, I wanted a chance to show off our new family cemetery.

]]>Wow. September was kind of a whirlwind for us. Sarah started her performances for one play, ramped up her practice for another, and found out that she was going to get to meet her hero, Norman Reedus, on Oct. 1, which I’m counting in this roundup just because I can. And as far as unschooling days go, she had a bunch of particularly cool ones that I’m excited to share.

(And as always, if you want a more frequent peek at what we do, you can always find me on Instagram and Facebook. I’m specifically trying to share more on Facebook, both from our lives and from other homeschooling blogs I’m reading, so make sure you’re following along there!)

All things theater and Shakespeare

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

Yep, more Shakespeare.

September was filled with practices for and then performances of Antony and Cleopatra through our local Shakespeare company, Orangemite Studios, where she and her friend Nash were cast as Cleopatra’s attendants.

We also started rehearsals for “Macbeth of the Dead,” a Macbeth retelling with zombies. As I said before, nothing could be more in Sarah’s wheelhouse than Macbeth and zombies. This one is through Weary Arts Group, one of the coolest groups Sarah has worked with so far; she’ll be one of the leads, Malcolm, the son of King Duncan (Duncan, of course, getting murdered by Macbeth early on).

Well, fun note: They didn’t have a Duncan. So after a few rehearsals, Dan said… “I could probably do that.” He went and read, did very well, and now he gets to play Sarah’s soon-to-be-murdered dad in a Shakespeare play.

Other Shakespeare stuff this month included:

10 Things I Hate About You – This Taming of the Shrew adaptation is just a great movie on its own, more if you know the story behind it!

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Sarah’s introduction to absurdist theater came when we got to go see this at The Majestic, a theater in Gettysburg, about an hour from our house. We ended up talking a bunch about Hamlet, the play that R and G come from, as well as various styles of theater, character development, the difference between stage and movie acting (since the version we saw included Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame), and a bunch of other related stuff.

Sarah’s poster on alpaca genetics won first place at the York Fair.

Interesting medical things

THERE’S a heading, right?

In September, both Sarah and I were retested for various allergies. That was both an interesting experience in its own right, and then became more interesting when we found out she did not have skin reactions to ANYTHING, despite having very allergy-like symptoms based on very specific exposures. We didn’t love her allergist, so I went to a different one at a different practice, and started the process of redoing my food allergy testing, only to find out that I may not be allergic to all the foods I used to be, which would be awesome except for the fact that I had to go to the ER earlier this year for one of them, so… who knows?

If nothing else, we’ve all learned a lot about how the immune system works, and we’re happily settled in on some different allergy medications that are definitely helping the allergies we might not have, so…?

I’ve also been dealing with some knee issues, which are now putting me in physical therapy several times a week, but as part of that, Sarah got to accompany me to some different appointments and an MRI. Best unschooling moment: While scheduling me for the MRI, the clerk asks, “Any new tattoos in the past two weeks?” I just said no and wanted to get on with it, but Sarah paused to ask why that matters, given that we know there is no metal in tattoos!

Well, it turns out that the magnets are so strong that they can smear the new ink, which has not fully set into your skin, if you get an MRI with a fresh tattoo. Which we now know, thanks to Sarah’s curiosity! She also remembered to ask them whether my Nexplanon birth-control implant in my arm counted as an “implant” for their purposes, which I definitely had forgotten all about. (Pro tip: You’re fine. It’s also not metal. But good for her for thinking to ask.)

And last up in weird medical-related stories for the month, I’d been having some problems with my neck and shoulders aching, and we weren’t due to go to our chiropractor for another week. Sarah first rubbed my upper back for me and then gave me a stretch to do while laying in bed. It turns out she had absorbed some advice from her Nana, an occupational therapy assistant, for just such situations. And it worked!

Between that and my physical therapy, it has begun to occur to Sarah that being a PTA or OTA could be a career she might pursue. We’re not, like, enrolling her on the spot, but we’ve definitely been talking about options!

Apollo Pengin was proud to see some of my art win at the York Fair. Owlish, at the top left, placed first; Wormhole Continuum, at the bottom, placed second. The one at right, Awake, is by me too, but didn’t win. (We think that art with words on it isn’t popular with judges.)

Books

Sarah has really gotten into reading again lately. We’ve been working on our family learning journals together, and in fact we’re all making progress on our book lists and otherwise pursuing the topics we’re interested in. If you haven’t yet read about that project, definitely check it out here!

Stranger Things – Dan, Sarah, Chris and I are watching this together. Sarah and Chris had already been through all of the first season, and they’re catching Dan and I up before the second one comes out later in October.

Ghost Rider – Saw a preview of this on TV, and then Sarah told me that they wanted Norman Reedus to be in a remake of it, and then we watched it.

Fawlty Towers – More British comedy, this time with John Cleese. A family favorite.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Probably Sarah’s favorite series of all time. When she gets super-busy and tired, she puts on one of her two or three favorite episodes and just chills.

One of our “scavenger hunt” goals on our road trip was to find a cemetery, which we call a “dead friends’ house.” We also wanted to see if we could spot wildlife. This was a two-for, with a caterpillar crawling on this gravestone.

Road trip time

On Sept. 24, Dan, Sarah and I took a day trip upstate in Pennsylvania. The supposed purpose was trying to do so leaf-peeping and see if we could see any color changing, but mostly, we just wanted to take our large stuffed-animal friends for a ride in our SUV.

Things we saw included:

Our friend Tracey, very randomly, at a Starbucks not particularly close to where either of us lives

Chris also noted, “Sarah has an interest in collecting Stephen King paperbacks, spurred by her interest in It. She was proud that she didn’t cover her eyes once during the movie. I have been keeping her up to date on Rhys Hoskins record start as a rookie with the Philadelphia Phillies. He hit 18 home runs in his first 36 games, which Sarah finds greatly impressive. At the York Fair, we went and saw the ‘Headless Woman,’ which Sarah correctly determined to be a fraud. She was also asking questions about the Mechanical Man and what kind of muscles he must need to do what he does.”

Coby helped with the fall decorating in the yard. Sadly, he passed away in early October after almost 14 years with us.

Some of our other rabbit trails included:

Why dogs can sense storms (when we had tornadoes come through our area and had to shelter in our basement briefly)

Reading all about Rob Zombie after hearing one of his songs on The Matrix’s soundtrack

The meaning of Dan’s brother Dave’s tattoos and what Dan and I did in high school English classes (this was, somehow, all one conversation

How hot air balloons fly and how calories work

The situation with North Korea

A very long, rambling conversation in a local Target about British succession, whether spanking is abuse, and families where women can’t go to college or work

How snakes and spiders are different as pets than dogs and cats (including things like desire to please their owners, etc.)

Chris and Sarah went to a local farm/orchard for their fall decor, and he grabbed this photo of her on some hay.

Games

This month, Sarah played a bunch of FIFA 17, and she also used some GameStop giftcards to buy Grand Theft Auto V. One of her favorite things to do (in fact, she’s doing it as we write this) is take turns driving cars off cliffs with her dad. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I’m glad it makes them happy!

Sarah loves guitar lessons! (Photo by Rod Goelz)

Unschooling places, projects and odds and ends

Guitar lessons: Sarah continues to take weekly guitar lessons from the amazing Rod Goelz, also at Weary Arts. He’s amazing!

Enjoying our neighborhood: Our new neighborhood is MUCH cooler than our old one. We get to take lots of walks, with more variety in places to go, and most importantly, we have really great neighbors. We like them so much that we actually socialize with them for fun – we hosted a Labor Day cookout and marshmallow roast that the neighbors and my sister and her husband came over for, and then they invited us over for a couple of bonfires at their house. Sarah is the only teen at these things but loves to go!

Daddy-daughter days: As a newspaper sports editor, Chris has a really terrible work schedule starting in August. He gets, like, Wednesdays and Thursdays off (sometimes, if he’s lucky), and he works 14+ hour days most other days to cover all the high school stuff plus college and pro sports. So when he does have a free day, he often dedicates it to “Daddy-Daughter Day.” In addition to the one they documented this month, they also had one where they bought a graveyard (more about this in a future post) and attended a birthday dinner for Chris’ nephew, one where they went to the York Fair and hung out in the 4-H petting zoo with Sarah’s friend Abby and her baby goats, and one where they acquired some awesome fall decor for our yard and arranged it.

The tub: OK, this is going to sound a little weird, but we don’t take baths. My mom and I can’t for various health-related reasons, and in our last house, we actually had four full bathrooms but none with a usable bathtub, just showers. So Sarah hadn’t taken a tub bath since she was, like, 4? But our new house has this huge soaking whirlpool tub, and a good friend of mine is a photographer who needed to use such a tub for a maternity photo shoot. So we cleaned it all up for her, made sure it worked, and somehow, this ended up with Sarah putting on her swimsuit to try it out!

The Walking Dead fandom: So, one of Sarah’s biggest interests is The Walking Dead, especially Norman Reedus and his character Daryl. She has an Instagram fan account full of amazing photo edits (usually with accompanying song lyrics). She would love your follows if you like TWD! Photo editing is a big pastime of hers, using a huge variety of apps. And, of course, when she MET NORMAN on Oct. 1, she had to make a ton of new edits of their photo together.

Other odds and ends this month: Sorting Sarah’s stamp collection, after she acquired some new ones at Hobby Lobby. A nice dinner at Red Lobster. Trying snacks from Colombia through Universal Yums. Naming the aforementioned cemetery. Playing with our robot, Cozmo. Talking about the kneeling debate.

Doesn’t everyone put on their swimsuit to get in the tub, which they’ve had for four months but never used?

Updates from around the family

Since our “curriculum plan” for this year featured not just Sarah but the other house adults, I figure I should start giving monthly updates on our progress too. So here’s a look at what’s new with the rest of us!

Me, Joan: I am managing to still have high As in both my graduate classes this semester, making it to tae kwon do at least once a week most weeks. (I’d love to do more, but the physical therapy takes a lot of my evening time, plus leaves me kind of sore.) But I did get to compete in a all-women’s martial-arts tournament early in the month.

In September, I finished seven books, including two more on the death penalty, which is one of my “learning journal” topics since I’m really passionate about prison reform. I also got to go kayaking twice with my awesome friend Kara, and started a pretty decent debate on social media when I shared this article about gender equality in “mental energy”, which is a huge hot-button issue for me.

Me, at the Mid-Atlantic All Female Karate Open. Second place in weapons form, fourth place in open-hand form and third place in sparring.

Dan: Dan says, “I confess, I’ve been slacking in the journaling after the first week or two of September. But I have gotten through a number of the books from the original list, as well as a bunch that never made it on there. Shout-outs go to I’ll Give You The Sun (weird and depressing, but intoxicatingly written) and The Gravedigger’s Son (very mild fantasy).

Work unexpected dropped two or three projects that are much easier/faster to do in Python, so that was a pretty neat application of learning. As I suspected, I knew exactly enough to Google a bunch of stuff to cobble my way through things. I still know I’m a ways off in things as basic as “how do I structure a larger project,” but the only way to learn is to keep doing it!

The topic I probably learned the most about this month is the US government’s continuity of operations plans in the event of emergencies, thanks to Raven Rock — a 560-page doorstop that traces those plans from Truman through Obama. Suffice it to say we as a country have spent an enormous amount of time and money, almost all of which would probably fall flat on its face in the event of an actual disaster. But that’s probably true of most disaster planning, and at least we’re trying?

Chris: Chris has two summaries this month, starting with “I worked a lot and my head hurts.”

My mom, also Joan, aka Mommom: Mom and Sarah had a bunch of fun this month with a cupcake-making project. Sarah originally asked her if they could make cupcakes with chocolate curls, but those turned out to be a lot more complicated than we thought, so they settled for chocolate shavings. The two un-iced ones they made were for me, because I don’t like icing. (I know, weird.)

Mom also had a group from her church over one evening, went out with friends to movies and meals, and got her doctor to adjust her medications to better keep her asthma in check during allergy season, which has given her more energy. She’s also been using an awesome light therapy treatment on her knees that’s helping them out a lot.

Sarah and Mommom baked cupcakes with chocolate on top! (She’s wearing a favorite new hoodie procured for her by Chris at her request.)

So what’s new with your family this month? Drop me a comment! I love hearing from all my “blog friends!”

On Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, we drove a couple of hours to Walker-Stalker Con Philadelphia to meet him.

Met my hero @bigbaldhead today, it was the best few seconds of my life. Norman was so sweet… he shook my hand, I told him he was my hero and he was like “no way.” He also asked what my name was and I told him and he gave me a high five and said “later gator” to me. It was amazing and I will never forget this day. Thank you so much Norman for making this day so special for me and when I say that you’re my hero I absolutely 100% mean it.

That’s what Sarah wrote on her Norman Reedus fan-account Instagram (@reedusfandomhome). Since then, she’s recounted the 12-ish seconds she spent in his presence dozens of times, made several edited versions of their photo together (which you see with this post), and started working her way toward totally owning the “Norman Reedus” category on QuizUp.

Being able to surprise Sarah a couple of weeks earlier with tickets to this event was awesome – probably one of my favorite parenting moments so far. It’s a great example of why saying yes is a key component of our parenting style.

See, Sarah had saved up more than $500 of her own money to buy a (nonrefundable) VIP ticket and a hotel room for us to see Norman, and get a photo AND autograph, at Walker Stalker New Jersey in December. Her parental figures chipped in the rest of the cost as a Christmas present.

She talked about it nonstop.

She picked out what she was going to wear.

And then Norman had to cancel that appearance.

Sarah was absolutely devastated.

She spent about a day being kind of mad. Then it settled into seriously sad – especially when one of her friends, a fellow fan, got to meet him unexpectedly.

A couple of months passed, and then, suddenly, Dan saw that photo opportunities were available with general admission for the Philadelphia show, which is a very doable drive for us. Photos were $100, and we scored three general admissions for about $29 thanks to a promo. So for that plus a tank of gas – $150 max – we found a way to make at least a big part of her dream come true.

I can’t imagine a better use for that money.

This was her face when we surprised her. She immediately started crying.

Do you think she was excited about the photo op tickets?

Norman isn’t just her celebrity crush. He really is her hero. She wants to be like him – not in the actor/motorcycle/crossbow/zombie-killing way (well, not mostly, anyway) – but in the renegade swagger, the confidence, the ability to handle any situation, the way people look to him as a leader, the artist. She admires that. And so she admires him for portraying it.

I never had many “famous” heroes. The people I wanted to be like were my parents, my teachers and professors, my siblings. As an adult, besides my mom (who has always been and still is my hero), the closest I came to that type of role model was a personal-finance blogger who I later went on to work for. Practical much?

Dan said he went through a Ken Griffey Jr. phase, but by middle school his heroes were his dad and his teachers.

My mom loved a variety of singers – first Gene Autry, then Dennis Morgan, then Mario Lanza. She wanted to be a missionary or an artist, but didn’t have specific heroes or role models in those areas. Her older brother, my Uncle John, was her hero for a while, and mine as well.

Chris said he didn’t know if anyone was ever near “hero” status for him, though if so, it was probably some of the 1970s and early 1980s Phillies, like Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw.

So while none of us adults really did the “movie-star hero” thing, Sarah has had a couple – first Arnold Schwarzenegger and now Norman.

Before Sarah met him, Norman Reedus was just a shaggy-haired dude with a motorcycle and a crossbow to me. But their meeting was a truly great experience. It didn’t seem rushed or fake or commercialized – it was perfect.

So, as I said when I posted about her visit on Facebook:

Norman, thank you for making a few seconds seem like something special to my daughter Sarah, the most special person in my world. You’re her hero, and living up to that in your meeting with her made you mine as well.